To appreciate and like jazz one has to understand, and more importantly, "HEAR and PROCESS" the chord structures and chord progressions. Without that ability, jazz sounds like a lot of unstructured notes randomly put together. The term Jazz was coined in the late 19th century based on the music genre originated from New Orleans but classical composers like Bach and Mozart could have been called the jazz musicians in their days. Just listen to any classical performance that is called "Variations on a theme by ...." and if you can make out the melody on each variation then you can "hear" jazz. Jazz has evolved into many forms but if you give the chord progression of a song to a group of jazz musicians they can play together based on it without needing to know what song they are playing. Each musician can take turn improvising using that progression while the others provide support based on the same. If you can hear when one of them stray from the progression then you can "hear" jazz. If you can't chances are you won't like jazz. Some of these chords and progressions can be very complex. Brazilian jazz has very weird chords and you have to be able to recognize them when you hear them. Most popular music has simpler chords and progressions with an easily recognized melody.
Can you recommend Jazz for some one that doesn't like Jazz?
Let me explain, I have tried to like jazz for over 30 years. I rarely find something I like. To me it sounds too disjointed, like everyone is trying to out do the others and they are all playing a different song. I know there has to be some good instrumental smooth jazz artists I am missing. If you have any suggestions of whom to try let me know. Some that are on my Jazz playlist is Pat Metheny-"It's for you" Bill Frisell _"Heard it through the grapevine" Holly Cole, George Benson... for an example of things I do like.
I'd love to have a 100 song Jazz playlist. So what'ch got for me?
Thanks
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I second most of @gfguillot recommendations in the smooth/ contemporary genre with a many more tasty morsels listed below... The Rippingtons- Curves Ahead Acoustic Alchemy -Red Dust & Spanish Lace/ (all albums are great) Special EFX -Double Feature/Global Village Warren Hill Earl Klugh Steve Cole Larry Carlton- Discovery Norman Brown- After The Storm Gregg Karukas ...any album Tim Bowman-"Sweet Sundays" (killer kut!) Brian Simpson...any album Joyce Cooling...any album David Benoit- Freedom at Midnight Brian Savage GOTA - It's so different here Kim Pensyl- Pensyl Sketches Jeff Lorber Freddie Ravel Four80East FATTBURGER- Good News "The Doctor" Chuck Loeb Paul Jackson Jr. Peter White Jeff Kashiwa -Hyde Park NILS ThreeStyle Tom Grant -Mango Tango Jonathan Butler Alex Bugnon Bobby Lyle - Tropical Chieli Minucci Dan Siegel Dave Grusin Michael Lington U-Nam And soo many others just ask...Enjoy! from MoonCrikit And for a killer visual experience, try on YouTube... Brian Culbertson feat Michael Lington Full Concert Jazz Burghausen 20043.2K views7 months ago
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@devinplombier -- You are very welcome my friend. I hope you enjoy Bohren as much as I do. Listen to their entire catalog, it is a wonderful treat. Watch their multiple live YouTube videos -- I'd love to catch them live, their shows look surreal. Like a "quiet version" of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor concert 😆!
I believe "Shoegaze Jazz" is a perfect description of Bohren. If you like Shoegaze rock, I'd suggest a new band from NYC called Gift. The keyboardist went to High School with my youngest son. They have released 2 very good albums.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mtQMJsQuuxSQnnUdfVmQJF9aK3QBL4Xz4&si=7LWTFQ_1PRTtIOoR |
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